The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1887-03-17

foreign to the scheme Of our Federal
government. What will Congres
do with railroad !aegue which will
be the grandest combination known
to modern history? AS the Register
maintained, when the bill was on its
passage, the general government
must 60 to the full extent Of an &C
tual despotism in this matter Of rail
road control, or its enactlncnts and
its commission will he circumvented
and disregarded as surely, as silent
ly and as unerringly as the seasons
come in their courses. The question
which this league will bring up at
some time, sooner or later, will be
the lawfulness Of such combinations,
and whether this imperiune cum in1-
perio is compatible with the existence
Of our established governments,
State or Federal. 1t is a question
not to be settled by lawyers and
courts, but must 60 directly to po-
litical solution. Is Congress pre-
pared to declare these combinations
penal ofense and to forbid their
existence under any pretense what
ever?
Having stepped into the arena,
this is what it pll surely leads up to,
sooner or later. We shall see. The
better policy, it has ever seemed to
US, would have been to have left each
State in charge of it's own co-opera-
tions, and to have made such corpo-
rations subject to such freight and
other regulations as each State
would have seen fit to make for the
protection of its own people, going
to tue extent of vacating the charters
Of such corporations if necessary.
The greed of corporations in our day
is no new thing in the history Of
man, though it may now go to an ex-
tent and disclose power never be-
fore witnessed. The true origin of
corporations is to be found in the
Middle Ages, where cities, towns,
fraternities of tradeslnen and the like
obtained charters from feudal SOW
ereigns Of certain privileges and i'm
muuities, sometimes for the protec-
ton Of personal liberty and some
times for the advantage of trade.
In England the prcrogative Of
creating corporations was in the
King, who granted charter for the
purpose; but charters may be granted
by Parliament also, and this now is
tue ordinary course. IL this coun-
try corporations are created by the
special charter of the Legislatures,
OF formed by the voluntary associa-
ton of members under a general
law.
Every corporation is under the
supervision Of some visitor who gen
erally in England is the King. In
this country the Legislatures possess
in general this right Of supervision.
This is the whole theory Of these
corporations. They are the creatures
Of sovereigns or commonwealtEs.
But it is q familiar fact Of history
that these creatures have time and
again set at defiance their creators
and masters, so as 10 unsettlc so.
ciety and at times to disintegrate
States, as occurred in the case of the
early Italian republics and in other
parts of Europe. Can we expect to
fare any better in this country with
such a combination as this grand
American Railroad League would
prove? It is useless, and worse than
childish. to blame individual mem
bers of these combinations. They
are only seeking what they esteem
their rights Of property and the con-
troll thereof under their charters. II
we allow them to hold charters su'
perior to the body of society from
which these charters are derived,
whose fault is it J.?
The question is one that must be
met, and we predict that in less than
ten years it will be the greatest
question before the people Of these